


Anodized Titanium

by Phoenicia



Category: Free!
Genre: (but not too much pining), Alternate Universe - Never Met, M/M, Pining, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-21
Updated: 2015-12-21
Packaged: 2018-05-08 02:07:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5479340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phoenicia/pseuds/Phoenicia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin needs to buy some gifts. Yamazaki Jewelry seems as good a place as any.</p><p>For the Twitter Xmas Secret Santa.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anodized Titanium

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BakaPandy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaPandy/gifts).



> So once upon a time [Ale](https://twitter.com/ActualAleisha) put out a 'hey, let's have a secret santa exchange, mutuals only' signup. And here we are! 
> 
> I was so excited when I got you, [Pandy](https://twitter.com/BakaPandy)! And then this idea just kind of came together. Happy SouRin-mas!
> 
> While I'm kind of a research junkie, I may have bluffed a thing or two about gemology and jewelry making, so any mistakes there are completely mine.

The store in Sano is a simple place, painted the same cream color as the other storefronts in the small downtown and bearing a navy-on-white sign with ‘Yamazaki Jewelry’. It is in better repair and has newer paint than the bookstore next to it - the profit margin is a bit higher on rings than on manga - but there’s something harmonious about the tiny collection of family businesses that comprise Sano’s downtown area. Nothing like Sydney - nothing really could be - but the salt breeze and slow pace here say one thing to Matsuoka Rin: home.

He flips his wayward hair away from his face and walks in. The bell on the door jangles and a dark-haired woman in a neat dress bows and bids him welcome. “Good afternoon,” he greets her in return. “I’m looking for some gifts, for my mother and my sister. The marquee said to ask about custom work?”

“Ah.” She smiles, gesturing him towards an alcove with a small table and two chairs. “You’ll be wanting to speak with my son. He’s our gemologist. Please wait here.” She’s gone before Rin can weave any charming Australian witticisms in Japanese and he takes one of the chairs, doing his best to appear relaxed. Rin is not a patient sitter; he’s kinetic almost to an extreme, most comfortable with his body in motion. Stillness leaves him alone with too many thoughts and anxieties, his mind overactive when his form is at rest. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea. Maybe after so many years all but on his own, jewelry is the wrong present for the ladies in his life. What is Gou’s birthstone again? Her favorite color? A ring is all wrong; he has no idea what size and as a physical therapist she rarely wears them. It still seems impossible that his baby sister has a college degree and a career when to Rin’s mind she’s still no older than ten and forever in pigtails.

“Sorry to keep you waiting.” The voice behind him is deep, gruff, and masculine, snapping Rin back from the familiar land of self-flagellation. He turns to look up (and up) at the presumed Yamazaki scion and he’s not at all what Rin expects. Whereas the floor staff are all neatly dressed - the men in suits and the women in subdued but elegant sheath dresses - the gemologist has his sleeves rolled up and his shirt unbuttoned at the collar, no tie in sight. He’s wearing a long apron and a magnification visor, the latter raised to rest on his forehead. “You’re interested in a custom piece?”

“Two,” Rin says while trying to reconcile his appearance with the rest of the store. He hasn’t been gone from Japan long enough for an entire cultural upheaval to take place in the retail industry, so the gemologist must be one of those rare souls to not give much of a twist what the rest of society thinks of him. Much like Haru. “No, probably three. Don’t want my grandmother to disown me.” He smiles.

Yamazaki doesn’t, merely grunts an acknowledgment. “Do you have an idea of what you want? Type of metal? Metal only or gemstones? We have an extensive array of designs if you simply want to plug colors in. Alternately, you can specify your price range for the pieces and I can design something suitable.” The words sound rote but fall short of disengaged, Rin thinks, pursing his lips and studying him. “Sorry,” Yamazaki abruptly says, rubbing the heel of one hand under his eye and leaving behind a smudge. “I’m not very good at this.”

“This…?” Rin is confused; he’s the store gemologist, so why shouldn’t he be good at it?

“Talking. People.” His brow knits in frustration and Rin wonders just how much of himself he’s expended in the admission. “I only come out when there’s custom work to be done.” He rubs again and the smudge grows.

Rin can’t help it; he’s intrigued. People who hold so much of themselves inside fascinate him, because he can’t contain what he thinks and feels no matter how he tries. “Why don’t you show me some of the designs first?” he suggests, loath to simply pick something and be done with the process. “And I can tell you a little bit about the people they’re for and you’ll know if we’re on the right track. I haven’t made buying jewelry for women a habit in my life.”

“No girlfriend?”

For someone who isn’t good at talking, Yamazaki sure knows how to send a heat-seeking missile right to the target. Rin flushes, rubbing the back of his neck. “None.” It isn’t for lack of wanting companionship and romance, but swimming soaks up all of his time and energy (and usually all his money). He likes girls well enough, but….

“You’re going to need a lot of help, then.” His face still seems made of granite, but there’s a faint flicker in his eyes.

“Oi!” Rin growls out. “Is that really something to say to a customer?”

“Not really.” The giant finally gives him a toothy grin and Rin swears he hears some sort of holy chorus. This guy can throw all the shade he wants as long as he smiles like that. For just a moment, everything in the world seems to narrow down to that dirt-smudged smile until Rin can feel the floor crumbling beneath him and his entire being plunging down that first roller coaster hill. Like he does everything, Rin falls hard and falls fast, and hitting the heavy g-force at the bottom leaves him a bit breathless.

While Rin tumbles headlong into attraction’s gaping maw, Yamazaki frowns down at his hands and cleans them with an alcohol wipe. He pulls the magnifier off his forehead before it gives him a headache and tugs a tablet and a sketchpad out of the desk. He toggles the tablet on, opening up its photo gallery. “We’ll start with these. If you tap the ones you like, it will mark them and send them to a new folder. Then we can find the common elements to build from for your design.”

As always, Rin picks himself back up, does a metaphorical dust-off, and they get to work.

 

* * *

 

After a thorough spelunking of the Yamazaki catalog for Rin’s selections, the gemologist has made several sketches to choose from. Rin is quietly impressed by Yamazaki’s knowledge and insight; he picked up on just the right motifs to suit three generations of Matsuoka ladies. The designs are related but far from identical, each for a necklace cast in white gold. Gou’s will have emeralds (her birthstone; Rin didn’t remember but Yamazaki supplied it when Rin gave the date), their mother’s garnets, and their grandmother’s amethysts. They discuss and debate and even almost argue over the merits of the designs. One such clash ends up in an impromptu jan-ken-pon throwdown that has Rin snorting with triumph when he wins and flushing with embarrassment when he realizes all the attention he’s drawing.

Yamazaki appears impervious to the scrutiny, his eyes never looking up from the chosen pages. “I think these will be very suitable. Let’s schedule an appointment for you to see them in six weeks.”

“Six weeks?” Rin blurts out, incredulous. He can’t imagine waiting that long to see Yamazaki again. Never mind that he just met him, the idea of six weeks without him feels torturous.

“Yes. I have to sculpt the designs, make a mold to cast from, do some junk casts for inspection before I ever touch metal. Then there’s sourcing the gems themselves. To make them uniform, I’ll probably cut and polish them myself.” A tiny sigh escapes Yamazaki, crinkles kissing the space between his eyebrows. “Sourcing was so much easier in Hong Kong.”

“Hong Kong?” Rin repeats, sucking in a surprised breath.

Yamazaki nods. “That’s where I took my GIA training.”

Rin’s fascination is a hungry thing, growing each time it devours a new tidbit of Yamazaki information. “That must mean you speak English,” he says, switching to the language effortlessly.

“Yes,” Yamazaki replies, also in English. “Still don’t like it, but it was study in English or Cantonese and while a lot of the characters have the same or similar meanings as Japanese, I could never get pronunciation even close. With all the loanwords, I’d been using English for years, just not really speaking it.”

“I know what you mean.” Being in Yamazaki’s presence is like a warm sweater for Rin, comfy and welcoming. It seems wholly natural to talk with him this way, as if they’ve known each other all their lives. “I lived in Australia since I was 12. Just moved back about three months ago.”

“What was in Australia?”

“My coach. I got accepted to a swimming school there. I’m aiming for the Olympics!” Rin announces, never quite able to tamp down that sense of pride when he says those words.

Something deep and wistful travels through Yamazaki’s eyes, gone before Rin can identify it. “You’ve worked hard for your dream, then, living away from home like that. Good luck.”

He makes a few more handwritten notes before transferring the descriptions to an invoice program in the tablet. “Here’s what your total will be. For custom work, we require a 50% deposit with the balance payable upon completion.” Rin glances at the figure, tells himself internally that the Matsuoka women are worth it, and nods in agreement. Yamazaki passes him the stylus, instructing him to fill out his information, including his mail for the receipt, and then sign. Rin has to start over three times when writing the address because he keeps putting down his Sydney one. Likewise, he signs his romanized name before realizing it, but the program advances before he can change it. Sighing internally, he holds the tablet out to the jeweler.

Yamazaki takes the tablet, squinting at Rin’s stylus writing. “Rin?” he ventures, deep voice a little unsure.

“Rin.” He confirms it with a sharp-toothed grin; if nothing else, he recovers quickly. “Matsuoka Rin. It’s a girly name, but I’m definitely a guy. And you are…?”

“Yamazaki.” He glances up, gesturing over his shoulder with the stylus. “It’s right on the door.”

Rin rolls his eyes but he’s enjoying the banter. Yamazaki has sneaked a little more out of his shell while they’ve been talking. “Yes, but which one? That way if I have to ask for you they don’t send me the wrong Yamazaki.”

At that he cracks a bit of a smile. “It’s pretty simple. Yamazaki-sama will get you my grandfather, Yamazaki-san my father or my mother, and Yamazaki-kun hauls me out of the back room.”

“What does just Yamazaki get me?” Rin’s flirting, he knows from the butterfly heartbeat fluttering in his throat, and he knows it’s inappropriate, but if he had a middle name (a concept he learned about when in Australia), ‘dogged persistence’ would be it.

“Around here? Confusion.” The gemologist stands up, collecting his magnifier along with the tablet and sketchbook. “I don’t want to seem rude, but I have a lot of pieces to set today. You’re not the only hopeless one seeking to buy a little favor.” His dark eyebrows lift in a way that makes it a tease, effectively short-circuiting any affront Rin might feel.

“W-Wait!” Yamazaki freezes in mid-retreat, turning back to look at Rin, who has no idea just _what_ should follow his impulsive plea. “Ah...that is…” Out of habit, he rubs at the back of his neck, trying to force his rough-edged speech into the keigo he knows he should use for a request. “Would it be bothersome if I came back? Maybe to watch?”

“Watch?” A dark eyebrow slides up in pure skepticism.

“Ah, yeah. The whole creative process. I don’t know anything about jewelry making, or gemology, or...any of what you do, but I’m interested! It would be nice to be able to tell my family I did more than just buy favor.” It’s an excuse but it’s closer to truth than Rin had realized. That’s why he came in for custom work to begin with. Gou, Mom, and Grandma...each of them deserves so much for the ways they’ve supported him while he chased first his father’s dream and now his own. “I know it’s unconventional and more than a little selfish. I just want to be a little part of it for them.”

Yamazaki doesn’t say anything, just studies him with a quiet dispassion eerily similar to Haru’s penetrating gaze. This guy is probably an epic poker player, Rin thinks, his face gives nothing away. As he’s debating dropping to the floor in the most self-abasing of bows, Yamazaki speaks, more to himself than to Rin. “...you really do have teeth like a shark…” he muses, something in that strange non sequitur turning over and over behind his eyes.

“Huh?” It’s not news to Rin, but how did Yamazaki get _that_ out of his (mostly politely phrased) begging?

“It’s nothing,” Yamazaki replies, almost to himself again. “It’s a little difficult…” he begins, looking straight at Rin.

And there it is, the Japanese way of saying ‘fuck, no’ without coming out and saying it. Not even years in Australia have let him forget that hemming, not-wanting-to-make-waves phrase. It’s irrational and childish, but Rin feels _hurt_ by the brush-off. The worst part is, he can’t express that at all, he has to suck it down like bitter medicine because _he_ can’t make waves either and there’s still the matter of their business relationship to preserve…

“...so is that all right?” Yamazaki concludes, his heavy eyebrows knitting closer together. “Matsuoka-san?” He tilts his head, downturned eyes narrowed in concern. “Should I say it in English?”

“S-Say what?” Holding the geysers of his emotions inside isn’t easy for Rin, it’s rather like trying to put a jar lid on a volcano; that doesn’t leave much mental capacity for listening comprehension.

Yamazaki’s face relaxes and one blunt thumb fidgets with the strap of his magnifier. “I said that I don’t have extra protective gear on hand, but if you wanted to pick up some safety glasses and an apron I wouldn’t mind the company. It’s a little tedious, and I’m not always the best at keeping up conversation, but if that would be all right…?”

Oh. _Ohhhhhhh!_

“Sure!” Rin’s certain the steam is blasting out through his ears, but that beats it taking the form of words. “I think I know someone who has that. For lab work. It’s mostly the same, right?” With an expression Rin would call a smirk if he knew the guy better, Yamazaki nods. “Ah, how will I get in touch with you?” Even Rin’s manners balk a bit at calling the store.

It’s definitely a smirk that curves Yamazaki’s mouth, parked at the corner of sly and satisfied. “I asked you to put your mail on the invoice, remember? Unless you’re the type to put down a fake one?” Rin shakes his head with ferocity. “Okay, then I’ll mail you. But now I really have to go back to work.” He bows just slightly, less formal now. “I’ll be in touch...Rin.”

While he floats out of the store, Rin thinks that while he was there to buy presents, he’s the one who received the best gift today. He rattles off a quick mail to Nagisa, asking him about his ‘weird scientist friend’ and is there any way the guy can loan him some protective gear.

 

* * *

 

It takes four days of pacing, four days of agitation, four days of casually walking through downtown and gazing longingly at the jewelry store before he gets the mail. Rin nearly drops his phone, hurrying to yank it out of his pocket. _Is tomorrow too soon?_ it asks, the mail address of _yamazaki.jinbeizame@docomo.co.jp_  an instant giveaway. _Tomorrow is fine,_ Rin mails back hastily, wondering just why Yamazaki has ‘whale shark’ as part of his mail address. It’s not like he has spots or freckles, at least not where Rin could see. _I got the gear, so I'm good to go,_  he adds, looking down at the duffel bag stuffed with items. Nagisa's friend (Rin's embarrassed to admit that even after an hour-long safety lecture from the professor-in-the-making that he can't remember his name and just calls him 'doctor glasses' in his head) clearly went all out in his preparations, the bag weighs a metric ton. Yamazaki doesn't reply for a while, a simple _looking forward to it_  when he does, and Rin sways around the room in a victory waltz until Gou walks in.

"Somebody looks happy," she bubbles, standing on tiptoe to kiss Rin's flaming cheek. For all the things they bicker about, Gou never questions or undermines her brother's romantic nature. Rin wouldn't be Rin without it. "So much better than your mopey-pants persona. What's their name?"

"Gou!" Rin sputters in indignation at his sister. "Does it always have to be someone? Can't I just have gotten good swimming news and be expressing it in dance?"

"Oniichan…" Gou says in her most patient tone, "you only waltz when it's a person because it's the ultimate in romance." He squawks and Gou smirks, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him. She's been very touchy since he came back to Japan, as if trying to cram years of missing affection and adoration for her brother into the time. "If you were Haruka-senpai, I wouldn't question it being swimming news, since water is the ultimate romance for him. But, because you're my dear older brother who would never ever lie to me, I'll believe you. So what's your news?"

Busted. Gou really should have gone to law school. "I…er…I can't. It's kind of a surprise."

She makes a buzzer sound, holding her arms up in front of her crossed in an X. "Your answer was incorrect. So we'll go back to the original topic. You like someone!" Gou bounces on the balls of her feet, so much the tiny girl Rin left behind when he went to Australia. "Is it another girl this time? Or a boy? Oh, I hope it's a boy, because that would be double the muscles for me to watch," she adds, palm to her cheek and a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Ugh! I go away and my sister turns into a rotten woman!" Rin grabs the top of Gou's head and starts tousling her hair. "And now she's gotten her nasty fujoshi germs on me! Gross!" The wrestling match is on, Matsuoka against Matsuoka, and it doesn't let up until their mother catches them…and joins in.

He's trembling and excited and terrified about tomorrow, but for today, Rin thinks it's wonderful to be home.

 

* * *

 

Rin doesn't know where to look first.

The back of Yamazaki Jewelry is far larger than he imagined. A row of large vaults occupies one full wall; this is where all of the jewelry is stored after hours. While theft and burglary are not common in Sano, their inventory is very valuable and it's imperative to protect the company's investment. There are two jeweler's tables outfitted with several magnifiers and many tools, items to heat metal and set stones. There are pressurizing units on casters against the back wall, containers of silicone to make molds, rolling cabinets that contain the stones, both raw and cut. Tools for tumbling, tools for polishing, tools for cutting, tools for things Rin has neither words nor concepts. All of these at Yamazaki's disposal, all of them used to make the beautiful glittering pieces in the showroom.

Fascination swells within him as he trails in Yamazaki's broad shadow. Unlike the first day they met, Yamazaki is perfectly clean-shaven, his shirtsleeves in neat folds over his sinewy forearms rather than simply shoved and rolled up. Maybe Yamazaki is as nervous about looking put together as he is, Rin thinks, but admits he's probably just projecting. Yamazaki doesn't seem the type to change clothes fourteen times or agonize over restyling his hair endlessly, and that only makes Rin long more. Confidence draws him like a magnet.

“I’m still at the sculpting stage on your work,” Yamazaki says, parking himself at one of the jeweler tables and offering the stool from the other one to Rin, “but it’s going well. I had to finish some others before I could begin. We held a restyling event last month and while I was able to do most of them on the spot, some of the pieces needed more careful rehabilitation.”

“You mean, people bring their jewelry in to you and you fix or upgrade it on the fly?”

Yamazaki scuffs his shoe, more than a little self-conscious of Rin’s assessment. “More or less.”

“That’s...beyond brilliant.” Rin’s eyes glow ruby-red with admiration, quite unable to fathom what it’s like to have that level of creativity and skill. All he’s truly good at is passing school with high marks and swimming. “How do you do that?”

A bit mesmerized by Rin’s enthusiasm, Yamazaki tells him. Before they know it, explanations turn to demonstrations...and Yamazaki snickering uncontrollably when Rin dons his borrowed hazmat-like gear. The more defensive Rin gets, the harder Yamazaki howls. “This is not funny, Yamazaki!” Rin snarls, knowing how foolish he looks.

“What exactly is it you think I do here, Rin?” Yamazaki gasps out, clutching his middle with one hand because he hasn’t _laughed_ like that in so long.

This is what he gets for listening to doctor glasses. Nagisa’s friend had launched into a lecture about electrolytes and chemistry and the properties of metals and gems, as well as all the potential hazards involved in just being near such an operation. And Nagisa had grinned and just _let_ him carry on, humming to himself in that crafty Nagisa way. They had been in the same year as Gou, so Rin would not be surprised if the three of them were in on this together. “The friend who loaned me all this is a chemistry grad student. Who should know better,” he grumbles. Setting jewelry isn’t exactly equivalent to cooking meth in the back of an RV.

“Well...your friend’s not completely wrong. I do some anodizing work from time to time.”

“Anodizing?”

“Yeah. Like the back of your iPhone. You use an electrolyte solution and current to oxidize a layer of color on it.”

“That is fucking amazing.” Rin yanks the elbow-length rubber gloves off to get to his phone, drawing a finger down the rose-gold surface. “So you can use it to make jewelry?”

“Mm-hmm. But it’s not terribly common. Yamazaki Jewelry specializes in higher-end things, so I don’t get many requests for it. Most of the anodized jewelry and such you see are mass-produced in a factory; they can do it cheaper. It’s just a personal hobby for me.” He shrugs and takes up the thinnest of his sculpting tools, waggling it at Rin. “Now do you want to see how your mother’s necklace looks? Maybe even make a couple of veins for the petals?”

Rin feels ready to combust with happiness, nodding fiercely.

 

* * *

 

They’ve been meeting for two weeks, talking about nothing and everything as Yamazaki makes the first casts and the final silicone molds, when one of the sales reps politely interrupts them. “Please pardon my intrusion, Sousuke-kun, but Inoue-san is here to pick up her custom order.”

He nods and turns to Rin, who is staring at him open-mouthed. “What?”

Rin can’t believe his ears or the strange turn of fortune this means. “You’re _Yamazaki Sousuke_ ,” he blurts out, incredulous. “You’re top ten in Japan in butterfly! All this time I’ve been going on and on about swimming and you never told me!”

“Didn’t I?” Yamazaki looks confused, shaking his head. “Wait here, I need to attend Inoue-san.” He pulls off his gloves and collects a box from the open vault, disappearing to the front of the store.

 _He even moves like a swimmer!_ Rin thinks as he watches him go. This is too unbelievable. Whenever he was frustrated and ready to quit in Australia, two rivals had kept him going: Nanase Haruka and Yamazaki Sousuke. It didn’t matter that only one of those challengers even knew he existed; someday he’d come back to Japan and finally have a winner-take-all butterfly race with Yamazaki.

It’s only now that Rin realizes his unmet rival’s name wasn’t on the list of Team Japan contenders. He’s been so wrapped up in returning and training and facing off with Haru that...he sort of forgot about him. But how? How could he forget that name hovering so far above his best times, that phantom back he desperately chased no matter how beyond his reach…

_Shit. Can I suck any more at things?_

Yamazaki - _Sousuke_ \- comes back in, sitting down at his table without speaking. The pull of his mouth again reminds Rin of Haru, the frustration the other has when words just won’t come. But Rin knows when to shut up and wait it out; after a long, silent moment Sousuke sighs, looking over at him. The wistful look is back, woven through and through with a pain that just looks wrong on him. “Summer of my first year in high school, my shoulder started having problems. I thought I could fight through it, but it was treatment, rehab, swim, and breakdown. Over and over. Everyone else was leaving me behind in the pool, and I finally had to admit that my dream just wasn’t going to come true.”

“Your dream?” Rin’s throat feels clogged and sandy with guilt, weighed down with memories of chasing a hazy figure that he never realized was no longer running at all. “The Olympics?”

He shrugs wide shoulders, looking away. “I just had someone I wanted to swim with, someday...”

Something about that stabs straight to Rin’s heart, his eyes prickling and burning with understanding in liquid form, but he can’t cry, not yet. Even if it’s crying for someone else, now isn’t the time, not when he can feel there’s still more to be said.

Sousuke shakes his head and draws a deep breath, turning back to face Rin. “But I gave it up before I lost all my range of motion, and I’m glad, I guess. I hadn’t really thought much about going into the family business beyond the inevitability of inheriting it, but I did so much cram school my last two terms at Tokitsu that I was able to get enough of an equivalency to apply for GIA and skip the rest of high school. I spent the next three years in Hong Kong, and I’ve been back here cutting diamonds since then.” The smile that tries to lift his mouth is wan but genuine, softening the currents in his ocean eyes. “It’s not necessarily the future I’d have chosen when I was fifteen, but at 24 it’s a pretty good life.”

“I had no idea…” Honesty deserves honesty, and Rin sniffles back the tears so desperate to escape. “I had this dog-eared copy of _Nihon Junior Swim Monthly_ my mom mailed me that I kept the entire time in Australia. It had the junior high rankings and you were top ten in all the butterfly ones and I kept telling myself ‘someday...someday I will have a race with this guy.’” Rin stands up, overcome with the need to atone, and bows. “I’m genuinely sorry.”

“Oi.” Sousuke whaps him gently on the back of the neck with a glove. “Don’t make things weird, Rin, okay? And don’t apologize for your dreams. Just because mine had to go down a different path doesn’t mean you haven’t worked hard for yours. It doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to have them and achieve them.”

“You mean that?” Rin thinks he might cry again but for a completely different reason, straightening up.

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.” The jeweler sighs again, running a hand over his eyes. “I’m about finished here, so why don’t you come back on Tuesday? I should have most of the stones cut by then and you can polish them.” That brings some of the sparkle back to Rin’s eyes and he hurries to catch the train home.

When he is once more alone in the back room, Yamazaki Sousuke pulls a tattered, folded magazine page from his wallet, one with a smiling, sharp-toothed, redhaired boy. _Nihon Junior Swim Monthly_ had a feature section once on Japanese swimmers training in other countries and the girly-monikered Matsuoka Rin was among those profiled with a few sentences and a picture.

_I just had someone I wanted to swim with, someday..._

It’s near to closing time, but Sousuke is no stranger to working after hours. He pulls out his rubber gloves and turns on the anodizer, tucking the clipping away before he goes to mix up an electrolyte solution and fetch some titanium. It’s time to work on one of those personal projects of his.

 

* * *

 

Six weeks are over far too soon, and though they’ve never seen each other outside of the store, Rin hopes that the finish line for the necklaces isn’t the end for them. True to himself, he couldn’t help making it weird a time or two with overthinking and apologizing, but Sousuke is more patient and more accommodating than Rin deserves, even asking him about his times and his regimen. He may no longer swim, but his eye for the sport remains sharp and analytical. After Rin gives him a flash drive of videos, they spend their next session talking ways to improve and shave milliseconds, specific tips that not even Rin’s coach has suggested.

It started out as attraction and fascination, Rin admits, but he’s drawn to Sousuke in so many more ways now. That’s not to say he still isn’t dreaming, still isn’t fantasizing, but finding someone who understands him more than anyone else ever has is a precious gift of its own, apart and aside from any romantic feelings.

Three velvet-lined boxes sit at the same table where they first met for real. Sousuke waits for him there when Rin walks in, his normal apron and forearms nowhere to be seen. Instead, today he’s in a charcoal-grey suit much like the rest of the male staff, with a solid turquoise tie in an elegant trinity knot. Silver-framed glasses (that he needs more than he likes to admit, Rin now knows) complete the look. He’s at once so very grown up, so mature and professional, and so very young to have completely changed course in his life where many others (Rin included) would have given up or drowned.

“Yamazaki-kun,” Rin greets, sitting down at the table.

“Matsuoka-san,” Sousuke returns with a nod, both of them reverting to the necessary business formality in this part of the store. “Your custom orders are ready. We greatly appreciate the opportunity to serve you and thank you for your kind patronage.”

“It has been my pleasure. Yamazaki Jewelry’s reputation for quality and workmanship is unmatched.”

“You are too generous. If you will please accept these?” Sousuke’s large hands slide the boxes towards Rin one by one as Rin opens them, beginning with his grandmother’s. His eyes look suspiciously moist when he opens Gou’s, and they’re full-on dripping by the time he finishes with his mother’s. Each on its own is a work of art, but seeing all three, being able to pick out where Sousuke let him sculpt lines and set stones, laying his own tiny marks on these gifts for the three most special women in the world...he sniffles gratefully into the handkerchief Sousuke passes him.

“I knew you would cry,” Sousuke whispers for his ears only, having learned Rin’s propensity for tears in the past few weeks.

“I’m not crying,” Rin whispers back, pressing the cloth tighter under his nose. “I’m just leaking happiness.”

“Whatever you say, Matsuoka-san.” Rin looks up, diamond drops on his eyelashes, and catches the full warmth of Sousuke’s gaze, his downturned eyes brilliant even behind the lenses and accented by the color of his tie. “But you’re still missing one item.”

“Huh?” Rin hiccups. “Sousuke…” Confused, he drops last name and honorific altogether. “I only ordered the three.”

Sousuke shakes his head, slowly, tugging off his glasses and laying them on the table. It leaves Rin slightly fuzzy to his eyes, loose cherry-red hair skimming against his sharp cheekbones and ruby eyes wide and _beautiful_. “You didn’t order it, but this is yours,” he says, putting a smaller blue box on the table between them. “Only yours.”

Rin seizes the box in nerveless fingers, everything else in the store reduced to white noise as he cradles it in both hands and flips up the top with his thumbs. Nestled within is a ring made of titanium about twelve millimeters wide, its thin edges polished and shiny. But those pristine edges aren’t what catches Rin’s eye, what makes him suck in his breath with hope and disbelief. Dancing through the border created by the edges are two sea creatures repeating, a shark and a whale shark, the tiniest of cast titanium spots flecking the larger one’s back. As if illuminated, the sharks frolic around the band on two rings of anodized color, red on top and teal below.

It hits him then; Sousuke... _made_ this. He sculpted the sharks by hand and cast the design and anodized the two colors at different voltages himself. For him. _Only_ for him.

Rin closes the box, clutching it tight against his chest as the tears fall like rain. For years, all he had wanted was to meet and race Yamazaki Sousuke, but this is so, _so_ much better.

“When I was in junior high,” Sousuke’s deep voice is quiet, “I had someone I wanted to swim with, someday. I hadn’t met him yet, but something about him called to me. I didn’t want to race him, not really. I just wanted to be his friend.” He reaches towards Rin, nudging his chin up and ignoring the salty wet trickling onto his fingers. “And as long as he wears this,” his other hand closes around Rin’s and the ring box, “we’ll be swimming together.”

Sousuke’s face curves into a private, gentle smile and Rin wonders how he ever thought it was made of granite. “It’s sized to wear on your pinky,” he continues, extricating the box from Rin’s grasp and opening it, the anodized colors catching the light again and seeming to glow with life. “So I suppose it’s appropriate for me to ask.” Sousuke removes the ring and holds it out to Rin to place on his finger. “Matsuoka Rin...will you be my friend and swim for us?”

‘Yes!’ tries to burst its way out of Rin’s mouth in a flurry, but his teeth catch the word just in time. “I will,” he says instead, eyes glimmering gemstone-bright, “but a ring like this,” he traces against the shark and whale shark with his pinky fingernail, “it needs a partner or the magic won’t work.”

Sousuke swallows convulsively a couple of times before the smirk from the first day sneaks back out. “Then we’re lucky I made a second one.” His hand dips into his coat pocket, returning with the ring’s larger twin.

“Showoff,” Rin teases, unable to stop grinning as he takes the ring from Sousuke’s palm with his left hand and offers his right to receive.

“Only for you,” Sousuke confirms, mirroring his position as they both slide the rings home. “Someday I’ll give you a chance to move it to your other hand.”

Rin cries. Again. Sousuke knew he would.

**Author's Note:**

> Rin calls Gou a 'rotten woman' because that's the actual meaning of 'fujoshi'. Boy knows that his sister is a dirty fangirl just like the rest of us.
> 
> [This](http://www.titaniumrings.com/amore-2.html) is very similar to the rings that Sousuke makes. The shark and whale shark are swimming together in the middle part (where the hearts are in the picture) and the red and teal are where the blue is. Not gonna lie, even though the design is different, the idea of these being pinky rings totally came from the SouRin mook cover.
> 
> [This](http://www.ties.com/how-to-tie-a-tie/trinity) is what a trinity knot looks like. I enjoy variety when I put characters in suits.


End file.
